Chapter 46: The Orchestra

The domain was under Hoka’s control, courtesy of a familial bit of powerful magic. Territory Array—as Syd had taken to calling it— gave Hoka control over any enclosed space she could perceive. Even though she wasn’t a spiritualist, the Grass House was little different, and she felt a sort of peace knowing it moved at her command.

To start, she separated the threats into their own little pockets. Hostile spirits stayed gathered in spots little different from where they haunted, while Yoshiki cultists obliviously moved through infinite loops. Even her allies couldn’t move without her permission, making this battle go as smoothly as she decided.

Jun Mi, for one, was effective when her opponents couldn't see her coming. She'd slip over bridges or drop down from toweringstalks, sewing lichen threads that bond her targets like mummies. She was a spider hunting prey, and Hoka was the force that guided them into her web.

Syd succeeded too. The cultist wouldn’t know what to expect from an afelin in general, but this one with its long arm stinger could turn battles of martial skill into ones of sudden trickery. Perhaps they expected him to wield it like a blade and not a lethal needle, one scrap turning them to stone.

She was grateful for both of them, for as they clipped the sect's numbers, Chiaki did battle with a spirit Hoka couldn’t grasp.

She could feel the power of it raging. Her surrogate mother was trying her best, but this spirit held her back, and there was nothing Hoka could do. It was too big? No, too deeply rooted, one part of it in this domain while another part was elsewhere. She would have to trust Chiaki to win that fight because every bit of energy that reached for that spirit was energy felling to hold two of the demons back. Still, Hoka did worry. Even with her control, she didn’t think they could wrap this up in two hours.

Then, something smashed hard against that thought, as a different type of magic ran through hers. She could feel the spell coming apart at her fingers—threads fraying as something else pushed its way in. She tried to close it, tried the wrench the spell together, but whatever invaded it was tearing it like a scalpel. She cried out and suddenly remembered L’vay was there.

“Help me!” She demanded, and the faerie smiled.

“Oh? Are you in trouble?”

“Just help me!” She barked, gritting her teeth.

He reached over her shoulder and touched the ball of light between her hands. In an instance, at that touch alone, the spell came together even tighter, and a chill ran up her spine. She looked at him, sure her eyes were saying too much. She wanted them to be quiet, but she couldn’t stop them from drifting to the cuffs around his wrists.

“Don’t worry Hoka…my magical abilities are thoroughly restricted.” His voice sounded like honey. She glowered.

"It doesn't matter…" She pushed her fears out of her mind, trusting Chiaki's choice to bring him out. No, she was still entirely scared, but more so of the spirit that imprisoned him than the fae himself. "Whatever that was…it just let something into my territory."

The faerie's eyebrow went up. "Something…?" Somehow, the smile that curled across his face said less about his words than the way he said them. How did all his words seem like part of a scheme?

“Some things…” She corrected herself, feeling as each of them split off.

That was L'vay's doing, she was sure. She would have grouped them, figuring each out in one go. She could still do that, but not without weakening her hold on Miki and Ayaka. Still, she needed to know who these people were. She pressed her fingers deeper into the ball and felt the life of them. Two humans, a myrin, an elf, and…two dragons? She searched for Syd's presence and a pixie of her popped into the air by his ear.

"Hoka." He sang her name as he spun and his stinger slit skin. "What can I do for you this fine evening?"

“People just broke into my territory!” She cried.

“Now how could that be?” He thrust the stinger through a chest and drew it back expertly. “Let’s consider it. Your spell’s structure is too advance for it to lose a battle of power, so you likely didn’t get overwhelmed by another spatial mage.” He scraped the neck of a furious foe. “Perhaps a person could infiltrate the structure of the spell, but that’d be a near impossible sight to see!”

He was too excited, as per usual, and too unbothered by the ruin he left in his wake. Pixie-Hoka looked back as several Yoshiki cultists turned to stone.

“What else do you have for me, Hoka?”

“I don’t know what to do! But there are two dragons there. What if one is the boy Jun Mi was talking about? These guys could be our allies!”

“And you want me to sign off on you connecting with them because… Chiaki is indisposed!”

“Yes!”

“Then this is an important lesson, Hoka. You’re the conductor, and we’re just the members of the orchestra. Show us what it means to control the rhythm of the battle.”

Syd nodded, and Pixie-Hoka clenched her fist as she faded away. As she came back to herself, she found L’vay standing several feet away.

“What are you doing?” She demanded.

“I was just waiting, Hoka…just in case something bad came this way.” L’vay plucked a blade of grass up and blew it.

She pushed him out of her mind again and sent her pixie to Jun Mi next. Having defeated one group, Hoka planned to send her after another, but that interruption had brought them upon her. One spotted her first and came at her fast, the air around him heavy as his attack launched.

Jun Mi spotted it just in time to raise her arms and block an unseen blow that left her shaking. The man’s leg swung around, and she ducked, shears soaring above her head as she sprung back. Her foe still came at her, but with a sewing needle, she pierced something Hoka couldn't see and sewed threads around the man's arm.

“What?” He grunted as they twisted and fell over each other, stitching a glove into place.

A sword was swung and the threads were torn. Jun Mi dashed at him and jumped back as arrows flew and rotted the ground. Two other sect members had arrived. Three now, with different powers, and yet Hoka still had to distract her with a question.

“Jun Mi!” The pixie landed on her shoulder. “What can you tell me about each of the disciples.”

Jun Mi's eyes moved between them, first the man who attacked her. "Baroq's disciples use a technique called Iron Bell. It's a multi-range tethering technique that wraps their aura around you and carries the impact of their blows through it."

Her eyes moved to the woman with the sword next. “Shiomi’s disciples use the Weightless Blade technique. Expanding their aura, each movement of their sword is remembered and their aura is shaped to match. They launch those attacks out as unseen blades.”

Finally, the one firing arrows from a liquid bow. “Yuzuko’s disciples…she teaches them to convert the energy that touches them into magyeon. They aren’t as precise as her but…” Jun Mi’s eyes dropped to the rotted ground. “They’re dangerous in their own right.”

Hoka took this all in.

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“What about the other cardinals?”

“Saheed’s will use some sort of item to manifest their power. I can say nothing about Miki and Ayaka though.”

That was still more than enough.

“I think the dragon boy is back and he brought friends, I’m going to use them to help us with this fight.”

Jun Mi dodged a quick barrage of arrows and slashes that devastated the ground around her.

“Keep her at a distance or keep your aura close to your body.” Yuzuko’s disciple instructed. Her vanquished demon is a Seamstress Spider. It lets her curse people with restraining silk.”

Baroq’s disciple looked at his arm, essentially dead at his side. “But she can’t fight, right?” He asked. Yuzuko’s disciple nodded.

“That might be best.” Jun Mi said to the pixie, and Hoka nodded, hoping for the best as she left her to meet this battle alone.

She searched through the interlopers till she found the dragons again, and pulled them both together. Focusing in, she watched them interact before she approached.

“Shuraat!” A girl exclaimed.

“Kiara!” A boy called back.

“What just happened?”

"I don't know. I was just flying, following your…scent…" He flushed. Kiara tried to pretend it didn't affect her. "But I couldn't get any closer. Then, suddenly, I was here."

“Can you…find the scent of the others?”

The dragon boy flushed harder, “It’s not weird! It’s a dragon thing!”

“I know! I don’t think it’s weird! It’s just weird for me! I don’t know what people’s scents are!” The two looked away from each other awkwardly.

They were about the same age as her, but while Hoka could sense two dragons, she saw none of that in the scarlet-eyed girl. She made her appearance and they immediately went on guard. Well, they were fighters at least.

“You, girl! You’re not a dragon!”

“I’m…not… who are you?”

“I’m Hoka! I’m with Chiaki and Jun Mi!”

Shuraat lowered his guard. “You’re the people she went to for help!”

“Yes, I really need to know how you all got into my spell but that doesn’t matter right now. You, girl, why do you feel like a dragon?”

Kiara answered, “I…have a dragon’s flames inside of me.”

“She has Mordunaal’s flame!” Shuraat proudly added.

For her part, Hoka perked up a lot. Her pixie almost glowed with happiness and she shook her head excitedly.

“All right, this could work. Are the people who came in here with you your allies?”

“Yes. Diana, Keigo, Danson, and Tsukee.” Kiara answered.

“Let’s pretend like I don’t know who they are.”

“The redhead, the boy in black, the elf, and the myrin.”

“And of the four of them, who’d be the best for fighting spirits?”

The scarlet-eyed girl considered that visibly, and replied confidently. “Keigo, Tsukee, and Diana. Probably in that order. Despite being a Myrin, Tsukee can do it.”

“Can she take on multiple sect members at once?”

Kiara looked at Shuraat. He nodded, and she looked back at the pixie. “Yes. I think she’s probably the strongest.”

“All right…what about the elf?”

The girl thought deeply again.

“He’d tell you he’s strong. If you put someone strong against him though… he’ll win.”

A new plan was coming together, but that still left the scarlet-eyed girl.

“And what about you?”

“If we fight together, we’ll win!” Shuraat answered. Kiara seemed shocked, but she smiled still.

“I’m here for a reason though! There’s a ghostly figure somewhere in this domain, it has golden eyes. I have to stop it.”

Hoka pulled back, though her pixie didn’t disappear. She touched the ball and searched hard, rolling over every spirit and person that filled the domain, checking them again and again, but couldn’t find the thing this girl was talking about. She turned around, almost ready to ask L’vay for help, but stopped when she noticed he had moved even further.

“What are you doing!” She barked. He smiled.

“So angry for a creature so small. I’m making sure nothing can hurt you.”

This Fae was getting worse by the second, but she shook him out of her head again.

“An elf, three humans, a dragon, a myrin.” Those were her allies, her instruments for this battle. “A ghost with golden eyes.” That was an anomaly she’d have to get to the bottom of. If she couldn’t feel it, then it had the ability to move freely in her territory. She wanted to turn to Chiaki for assistance, but the woman had problems of her own…

◎◎◎

Chiaki was… in the middle of an intense battle. The transformed Hrish, came back with more power, fist flying in after unseen blasts. She tried to dodge, feet moving fast, but air blades swung faster, cornering her to let him grow closer. She could try to jump but black orbs danced above her head. They were waiting to strike, waiting for Hrish to leave her broken. And he might have had his backhand strike not bounced off scales lingering in the air. Chiaki slashed before they fell away, blade going for the roots in his chest. But Hrish thundered back as the orbs came down, exploding with a rapid wave of blasts.

She survived, but that was the last of her scales. She dared to let her attention drift to Yokumori's vestige, cursing Hijikata for provoking the spirit's wrath. She cursed herself too, for not sensing it before it attacked. What could she do? How could she survive? How could she wrap up this battle before their time limit was over? How was the vestige even here? Questions, so many questions. But were she to be honest, she did have an answer for one of them. She wanted to save it for her battle with the demons, but was she not looking at worse? Did she want Yokumori to claim demons too? As the black orbs spun toward her, she switched her katana with a shakujo, and the world slowed down. She tapped it on the ground, and a breath filled her ears.

“Trade?” It stood behind her, loomed above her, garbed in a fine fur coat. A faded face frozen in a rictus stared out above her head, and at her side hung a bag big enough for several bodies.

“Yes, I offer myself.” She said, and let the black orbs hit her.

Their touch felt like flame set to her cells, each burning individually as the heat moved through her like an infection. Her skin cracked, then flesh and bone, the heat running through her until her body burst. It was instant, right? No more than a few seconds? Even though it felt like it took several years? Her consciousness faded, and the spirit lifted a long bony finger.

“Thief.” It pointed at Phirun and hands spewed out from the bag, taking tight hold of him. Nails dug in and pulled him apart piece by piece. Yokumori's vestige shuddered and its two remaining puppets screamed. As the pieces were pulled into the bag, Chiaki's shakujo rose from it. The spirit faded, and she returned to the world with tired eyes. Yokumori wasn't as quick to attack this time.

“Unfortunately…Hijikata isn’t the only one who has thought of how to beat you.” She gave it a tired smile.

The Flesh Merchant was a spirit from the North Wing borne of the misery of those who died in captivity. You take one of his, he takes one of yours. It was a gamble to use that spirit. If she didn't die, it would have claimed her life. That was a one-time use though. She couldn't afford to let a spirit like that remain in a domain too long. It didn't matter though, her shakujo would let her have any choice of spirit. For the demons, she'd just figure out something else…

All the while, Rocwen watched, impressed.

This woman should have been easily overwhelmed, but her spiritual powers were beyond belief. Like the Spirit Princess in the east in his time. She was one of the few foes the Serpent Dynasty did not easily challenge, and it seemed her bloodline outlived it. That was a shame, but he decided he appreciated it. Watching her now inspired him, and would lead to the rise of another demonic empire. As she fought on he opened a wound in his palm, pouring his essence into the domain’s soil…

[Chapter 46 ends…]